


diamond dust

by katineto (mistalagan)



Series: 2019 YOI Omegaverse Week [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Space, Arranged Marriage, M/M, Omega Victor Nikiforov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 00:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19734916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistalagan/pseuds/katineto
Summary: “Vitya,” she sighs, dispassionate as a light breeze, as she brushes off some invisible imperfection on his white clothes. “It’s a good match. You’ll be happy. The Katsuki alpha is a lovely person.”It’s an advantageous match: that much, at least, is true.





	diamond dust

**Author's Note:**

> just gonna spit out some short fics for this week while I puzzle over my longer projects

Viktor’s hands do not tremble.

His expression is as serene and unknowable as any properly bred Nikiforov’s ought to be. His back is straight. His chin is at the precise angle it needs to be, not too high, for fear he might be thought proud. No tears gather in his eyes to mar the clarity of his gaze.

His heart, though, beats hard in his chest, and a swollen lump of resignation rests heavy in his throat.

“Vitya,” he hears, in a cool, even tone; his dam, who stands before him with a blank expression that he might justly perceive as fondness. “Are you ready?”

It is his weakness that he falters in his reply, takes a millisecond too long to answer.

“Vitya,” she sighs, dispassionate as a light breeze, as she brushes off some invisible imperfection on his white clothes. “It’s a good match. You’ll be happy. The Katsuki alpha is a lovely person.”

It’s an _advantageous_ match, that much is true: for every wellborn gossip who scoffs at his engagement to a foreign merchant, twice as many bite their tongues in jealousy. The Katsuki family owns most of the Yutopia trading port, a tiny station on a frozen planetoid spaced perfectly at the nexus of several jump points. The port is saved from hungry warlords and pirates alike by two things: the first, that no nation would gladly accept its falling into another’s hands; the second, that a particularly proud, ferocious, and clever troop of mercenaries call the station home. The kind of wealth and influence bought by marrying into the family, especially from such a small and backwater planet as theirs, is almost greater than a marriage into his own imperial household might bring.

Moreover, it’s also true that Katsuki Mari is a perfectly fine alpha, if rather disinterested in Viktor himself. He could not have hoped for better.

He could not have hoped for worse, either, to be so close to his dreams and yet so far away. The sights, the smells, the culture of Yutopia: all will, he knows, be as a sharp dagger in his heart, reminding him daily of that glorious year he spent aboard the station, free of thoughts of marriage, full of thoughts of…

“Vitya.” His dam is sterner, now. “Let’s not keep them waiting.”

“Yes, mama,” he says, and closes his eyes as she lowers the blindfold down and takes his hand.

Two more things that Viktor knows. The first, from common gossip: that the second Katsuki sibling will be leaving Yutopia, for some unspecified time, with no guarantee of their return. The second, a closely-kept secret: that when his and Yuuri’s hands touch, stars bloom in brilliant galaxies between their palms.

-

Viktor is blinded and barefoot, led by his dam over rough gravel: he stumbles, of course, in a practiced manner meant to look real. The Yutopians might consider it a barbaric custom, but to his people it’s deeply symbolic: he the people wandering the wilderness, blinded to the stars above him; his alpha, kind and gracious, finally opening his eyes. His dam squeezes his hand when they reach the stairs, and he lifts his feet: a few steps further, and she lets go. He leaves his hand hanging in midair, waiting.

This, too, is symbolic: the music is slow and mournful as he waits. Still, his hand does not tremble.

When the drums begin, the horns pick up the melody, and begin to edge into something triumphant. His alpha is coming.

He can smell her.

Mari smells a great deal like Yuuri—they are siblings, grown up in the same household, after all—with a stronger musk, more forceful undertones. Her brother is stubborn and fierce, but his scent barely shows it. Hers wends its way into Viktor’s nose and makes demands of everyone around her.

His hand does not tremble.

The priest begins to speak, while Viktor focuses on his breath, steady, just like he’s been taught. A soft cord is draped over his wrist: he does not flinch; he does not react.

Mari takes his hand, then, and gives it a gentle squeeze.

She will be kind. He has to remember that. She is his age, even, only slightly older; many omegas get nothing of the sort. Yutopian culture is liberal, almost shockingly so, a place where Viktor can walk around almost like an alpha, where he can enjoy the freedom that the lower classes have to do nearly as he pleases. Mari will not force herself upon him, may not even ask to lay with him at all.

(Mari has her lovers, too. He knows that. But alphas are allowed such things.)

The priest wraps the cord around their hands, but pauses halfway through, at the sound of gasps and applause from the crowd. Viktor can hear his smile. “What a wonderful omen,” he says, and Viktor wonders what it is: the sun coming out, perhaps, a rarity at this time of year; two doves, paired in flight; the appearance of a tear in his dam’s eye, or better yet, his sire’s.

Mari squeezes his hand more tightly. The applause dies down. The priest continues. The cord will bind them for the rest of the ceremony, until the guests begin their celebrations and they retreat to their wedding chambers.

(Mari will not force herself upon him. His hand does not tremble.)

He breathes, steady. His bare feet are cold in the wind. Colder, with each passing minute.

“And thus, I pronounce thee wed, in soul and spirit, as the soulmates you so clearly are; now go thee to be wed in body also!” The priest sounds so proud, so happy, even as what Viktor knows are lies spew from his mouth. He can’t be soulmates with Mari.

Mari, who takes his other hand, who guides him along the stage and down to cheers and whistles from one side of the aisle and polite clapping from the other, who takes him in through the doorway and down the hall and… 

“Vitya,” she says, in a voice too deep.

-

Three things that Viktor knows: the first, that the second Katsuki child is supposed to be gone, many jump points away; the second, that the second Katsuki child is an omega, and thus utterly ineligible to marry him; the third, the exact timbre and cadence of Yuuri’s voice. 

“What?” he chokes out, as hurried hands disentangle the cord, and strip the blindfold from his eyes, and his beloved’s face comes into view. “Yuu—what, how?” He can’t believe his eyes; he can’t believe his _nose_ , Yuuri still smells like Mari, he doesn’t understand.

Yuuri’s eyes are shining. He is dressed like an alpha, all in black, and they are in the wedding chamber, and stars spark and twinkle like diamond dust around them.

“It was so easy,” he laughs, as the world spins around Viktor, and his hands shake, and tears well up in his eyes. “Oh, Vitya, don’t…why are you crying? I didn’t expect you to cry…”

“I’m upset!” Viktor barks, and covers his mouth immediately. He glances back at the closed door. “Yuuri, this is dangerous, this, how…?”

“Everyone out there thinks I’m an alpha,” Yuuri says, reaching out to grasp at Viktor’s hand again. “Well, not everyone; everyone from here, anyway. Mari scented me; she’s waiting on the ship, by the way.” He pauses. “I guess she could have just married you,” and his nose wrinkles. “But I didn’t really like that. And anyway, now it’s in my name. I mean…” he falters. “If that’s okay. We can get it annulled, if you want, you don’t have to marry anyone. On Yutopia, you can be whatever you want to be…wait, don’t cry!”

Fresh tears are welling up in Viktor’s eyes, and he bats Yuuri’s hand away. “Why would I not want to marry you?” he exclaims, face undoubtedly red, overwrought with emotion.

“Well, I,” Yuuri stutters. “You do?”

“Of course I do,” Viktor says, “That’s all I ever wanted.”

“Not all,” Yuuri objects, undoubtedly thinking of silly things like zero-g ballet and astronomy and intergalactic travel. And normally, he’d be right, in that Viktor wants all those things too. But right now?

“Do we have to hurry? To get on the ship?”

Yuuri shakes his head, even as his brows furrow and his face scrunches up. “No, no; they all think I’m an alpha, remember? We have to act like this is a regular wedding, and go back out and dance and wave and then we can get on the ship.”

“Perfect,” Viktor breathes, “Then we’d better act like this is a regular wedding, _alpha_ ,” and he launches himself at a very surprised Yuuri, who stumbles backwards onto the bed, stunned and full of laughter.

-

“Hey, Nikiforov,” is his greeting when they board the ship. Katsuki Mari leans indolently against the wall, clad in a distinctive grey and navy uniform. “Hey, little brother.”

Viktor stops, acutely aware that none of this could have happened without her. “Thank you,” he says, “I don’t know how I can—“

She waves off the rest of his sentence. “No skin off my back,” she drawls, and turns away. “Get strapped in, pretty boy.

“We’re taking you home.”


End file.
